Most of us like to see ourselves in the future, more blessed, richer, more healthy, younger looking, slimmer and fitter, marrying to a kinder/more loving wife, having smarter and more obedient children, living in bigger houses, driving a newer car etc. When we worship God we tend not to see God/Jesus as He is, but see the things He can give us. We try to declare our love for God, whilst our eyes are on things and not on God.
The things that we want are not really bad. Blessing, feeling, healing, gifts etc. – God has promised to give them to us freely anyway. We also tend to display the obvious symptoms of worldly worries and unbelief: painful trying, ceaseless holding, constant drifting, busy planning, and anxious caring, constant asking, wanting, using God, giving glory to and laboring for self.
Why do Christians behave this way? Oswald Chambers said this, “The danger with us is that we want to water down the things that Jesus says and make them mean something in accordance with commonsense. If it was only commonsense, it was not worthwhile for Him to say it!”
Christians read the Bible without reading. Prophet Isaiah predicted this. People are not deaf but they cannot hear. People are not blind but they cannot see. Something great and supernatural will happen if they indeed hear or see!
In my earlier records on living Biblically, I omitted a number of passages because I found them too hard to meditate upon. I had no idea how to apply them. But God in His mercy and patience led me back to those passages bit by bit. I have been dreaming of reading the Bible and talking to and discussing with the invisible what those passages meant and whether I need to ponder more. By the time I woke up I forgot the passages although they were so clear in the dreams. Once in a while I woke with a clear word stuck to me and today I had this word “Baptism” stuck to me as I woke. I recalled the passage that I had skipped previously.
I have recently encountered violent and irrational objections and fears (panic and hysteria) from adult un-believer men that their family members, e.g. elderly parents, become baptized into Christ. They even go to the extent that they rather their parents die than becoming a Christian. At first I thought they were just superstitious as they thought baptism is some thing like brainwashing used by the totalitarian government.
During the last few days I had some passing thoughts of the event of baptism and knew in my spirit that it could mean more than just a ritual or tradition or a practice of witnessing. There is a supernatural meaning, I thought. Something happens in heaven (where God lives) when a person is baptized into Christ. Like the Holy Sprit it is another identity or warranty card. However I did not proceed with that thought and soon forgot.
Reading the Bible again about baptism and what Jesus says, I realize now that baptism is not as simple and ordinary as a lot of Christians think. Definitely it is not a matter of commonsense.
When Jesus was baptized, something supernatural was revealed. “When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.” (Matthew 3:16)
“And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17)
1. The heavens (pleural) were opened to Jesus. Many layers of heavens all opened instantly, all the way up to ‘the heaven’ where God lives.
2. God’s Spirit (the Holy Spirit) came down (from ‘the heaven’) and alighted upon Jesus.
3. God spoke from heaven (‘the heaven’ where He lives).
4. God expressed His special love and favor for Jesus.
Remember that the devil and his gang were up there in heavens (the layers between earth and ‘the heaven’ where God lives). They could not interfere at all. They were powerless to block the pathway to heaven and for heaven to come down! They probably fled from the bright light of God’s presence.
When Jesus told His newly acquired (reluctant) disciple, Nathanael, Jesus ‘saw’ him (transcending space and distance limitation), he was convinced and immediately believed that Jesus was the Son of God. But Jesus said, “You will see greater things than this. Most assuredly I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” (Matthew 1:50-51)
The disciples became eye witnesses of Jesus in all the great things that Jesus did later. Yes, heaven opened. Great supernatural things happened.
After Jesus resurrected from the dead, before He ascended into heaven, He gave a command to His disciples, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28: 18-20)
I sum up what Jesus says as follows:
1. Jesus now has the supreme authority over heaven and earth.
2. He commanded the disciples to make disciples of all the nations.
3. The physical responsibilities of making disciples include: baptizing them, teaching them to observe all that Jesus has commanded them.
4. Being baptized in the name of God the Father, the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit, means being included in the trinity God’s exclusive kingdom. Those baptized are officially the citizens of that kingdom. They enjoy all the rights and privileges of that kingdom.
5. One exclusive privilege is that Jesus will come and stay with those who have accepted the inclusion by the trinity God in this way, forever.
Wow! No wonder the devil and his minions panic and go into hysteria when they hear of someone likely to be baptized into Christ! A baptized person has died to the world (no longer under the devil’s rule) and now lives to God. One more defeat to the devil.
My application: carry on reading God’s words with my heart opened to the Spirit so I would not omit what Jesus says. My advice to those who have believed but have not yet baptized is that you do not have much time. Just do it now! Get your children to be baptized too. You will not regret it. Believe me.
AAA Jack
May 25 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment